The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-01-06
VOL. 20.
THE FLYING YEARS.
REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE,S NEW
YEAR SERMON.

We Should Not Measure Our Years by
Our Sorrows, but by Our JOys-Tor One
Stalk of Nightshade there are Fifty
blooming NIarigoIds and HarebeiIs
BROOKLYN, Jan 2-This morning at the
tabernacle the Rev. T. De Witt Talnage, D.
d., exponnded some passages Of Scripture
concerning the longevity of the patriarchs.
He gave out tho hymn beginning:
My days are gliding swiftly by,
And !, pilgrim stranger,
Would not detain them as they fly,
Those hours of toll and danger.
His text was Genesis, Xvii, s: GLOW Old
Art Thoup Tue preacher said:
The Egyptian capital was the focus of the
worlds wealth. In ships and barges there
had been brought to it from India franklin
ceI1Se, and cinnamon, and ivory and dia-
nlonds; from the north marble and iron;
from Syria, purple and silk; from Greece,
some OF tho finest horses of the world, and
some of the most brilliant chariots, and from
oil the earth that which could best please the
eye, and charm the ear, and crafty the taste.
There were temples ahame with red sand
stone, entered by the gateways that were
guarded by pillars bewildering with hero
gly hcs, and wound with brazen serpents,
and adorned with winged crcatures-their
eyes, and beaks, and pinions glitter
ing with precious stones. There were
marble columns blooming into white
Hover beds; there were stone pillars at
he top bursting into the shape of the lotus
hen in full bloom. Along tho avenues,
ed with sphinx and fane and obelisk, there
were princes who came in gorgeously uphol-
stored palanquin, carried by servants in scar
let, or elsewhere drawn by vehicles, the
snow white horses, golden-bitted and six
abreast, dashing at full run. There wero
fountains from stone wreathed vases climb
ing the ladders of the light. YotI would hear
bolt shove and door of brass would open
like @ flash of tho sun. The surrounding
gardens We're saturated with odors that
mounted the terrace and drippel from the
arbors, and burned their incense in the Egyp-
tlan noon. On floors of mosaic the glories of
Pharaoh were spelled out in letters Of
porphyry and beryl and flame. There were
ornaments twisted from the wood of tam
hrisk, embossed with silver, breaking into
foam. There were footstools made out of a
single precious stone. There were beds fash
ioned out of a crouched lion in bronze There
were chairs spotted with the sleek hides of
leopards. There were sofas footed with the
claws Of wild beasts and armed with the
beaks of birds. AS you stand on the level
beach of the sea on a summer day and look
either way and there are miles of breakers,
white with the ocean foam, dashing shore
ward; so it seemed as if the sea of the worlds
pomp and wealth in the Egyptian capital for
miles and miles flung itself up into white
breakers of marble temple, mauscleam and
obelisz
1t was to this capital and the palace of
Pharaoh that Jacob, the plain shepherd
came to meet his son Joseph, who had become
prime minister in the royal apartment Pha-
raoh and Jacob meet, dignity and rusticity,
the gracefulDess of the court and the plain
manners of the field. The king, wanting to
make the old countryman at ease, anil seeing
how white his beard is and how fee BILE his
step, looks familiarly into his face and says
to the aged man: "How old art thoug'
Night before last the gate of eternity
opened to let in, amid the great throng of de-
parted centuries, the soul of the dying year.
Under the twelfth stroke of the brazen ham,
mer of the city clock the patriarch fell dead,
and the stars of the night were the funeral
torches. 1t is most fortunate that on this
road of life there are SO many milestones on
which we can read just how fast we are going
toward the journey end. feel that it is not
an inappropriate question that | ask to-day
when look into your faces and say, as Pha-
\ raoh did to Jacob, the patriarch: "How old
art thou2D
People who are truthful on every other
subject, lie about their ages, so that do not
solicit from you any literal response to the
question have asked. would put no one
under temptation; but l simply want, this
morning, to see by what rod it is we are
measuring our earthly existence. There is a.
right way and wrong way of measuring
a door, or a wall, or an arch, or tower, and
so there is a right way and a wrong way of
measuring our earthly existence. 1t is with
b reference to this higher meaning that I con-
front you, this morning, with the stupendous
question of the text, and ask: "How old art
thou."
There are many who estimate their life by
mere WORLDLY qualification When Lord
Dundas was wished happy New Year, he
said: at viii have to be happier year than
she past for hadn't one happy moment in
all the twelve months that have gone" But
that has not been the experience of most of
us. We have found that though the world is
lasted with sin, Z : a very bright and beau
!. iful place TO reside in. We have had joys
Vulnerable. There is no hostility between
ne gospel and the morriments and the festiv-
4 tiles of life do not think that we fully
enough appreciate the worldly pleasures God
gives us. When you recount your enjoy
ments, you do not so far enough back. Why
do yoC not go back to the time when you
were an infant in your mothers arms, look
ing up into the heaven of her smile; to
those days when you filled the house with the
uproar Of boisterous merriment; when you
shouted as you pitched the ball on the play
ground; when, on the cold, sharp winter
night, nufiled up, on skates you shot out over
the resounding ice of the pond! Have you
forgotten all those good days that the Lord
gave you2 Were you never boys Were
you never a girl3 Between those times and
this, how many mercies, how many kind
nesses the Lord has bestowed upon you. How
many joys have breathed up to you from
the flowers, and shone down to you from the
stars, and chanted to you with the voice of
soaring bird, and tumbling cascade and
booming sea, and thunders that with bayo-
nets of fire charged down the mountain side
Joy! JOY! Joy9 If there is any one who
has a right to the enjoyments OF the world it is
tl1o Christian, for God has given him lease
to everything in the promise: "Au are
yours But l have to tell you that a
man who estimates his life on earth by
mere worldly qualification is a most unwise
man. Our life is not to be game of chess.
1t is not dance in lighted hall, to quick
sauaie. 1t is not the froth of an ale pitcher.
is not the settings of q wine cup 1t is not
banquet with intoxication and registering.
= 1T is the first step on a ladder that mounts
= into the Skies or the first step on a road that
.plunges into horrible abyss. So that in this
world we are only keying up the harp of a
rapture, or forging the chain of bondage
And standing before you, to-day, with life
on the one side and death on the other; song
On the one side and groaning on the other;
mansions on the one side and dungeons on the
,ther; heaven on the one side and hell ON the
other-I put to you the question of the text:
SHOW old art thouf" Towards what destiny